Fermentation Experiment (Cayenne Pepper Sauce) - Pepper Geek

[@iamGrowing]

I like the fact that it didn’t come out to your ideal specifications and you told us that. Then you gave tips on how to make it better. We all learn from mistakes.

[@PepperGeek]

I knew it was probably better to share the experience than scrap it, and now there is so much useful info in the comment section :)

[@scottmccullough8585]

You should save your fermented mash that doesn't go through your strainer. Dehydrate it, grind it up, and add it to 9 parts salt for an amazing fermented seasoned salt. I just blended a batch of habanero garlic sauce today and the leftover mash is in the dehydrator. Smells amazing.

[@ashleighnelson512]

Brilliant! 😎🔥😎🔥

[@sslocke]

Do you grind it up with the seeds? Ive got a mess of various chili mashes that im gonna combine into one big mix pepper powder but dont want to have to deal with the seeds if i dont have to

[@lukebarnes3157]

You're telling this to peppergeek 😂

[@mallobag]

What an amazing idea

[@elanasofko9347]

Have been producing 1-2 batches of Louisiana style hot sauce from homegrown veg for several years now. Often my choice of peppers is limited to the varieties I have that have ripened in sufficient quantity for a 2 qt crock. But what tends to work best for me is 75% Fresno & 25% cayenne. I also add onion or leek and garlic to the ferment, along with a few juniper berries that I remove before blending. I blend a really long time so the pepper solids are extremely fine & not strained out. And I’ve let the ferment go as long as 6 weeks, as short as 2, mostly acting when it just smells really good sometime after the first week. Lastly I blend with some of the brine & correct flavor using vinegar and tiny bit of sugar to taste if necessary. Last year I used equal parts brine & vinegar, and a drop of molasses but this year it was a cup of brine to a splash of vinegar (2T?), would have added 1/4 t brown sugar at a time but it didn’t need it.

[@pat6429]

Keeping the brine is key. That is where all the flavor and heat is.

[@PepperGeek]

Thanks for sharing! We have used the brine in previous ferments, but had heard the white vinegar was the way for Louisiana style. We’ll try incorporating it in a future try!

[@elanasofko9347]

@@PepperGeek been watching your channel as I am located in the lower Hudson Valley of NY so similar growing conditions. Looking to work out which peppers will grow well here for my pepper needs. You guys are awesome!

[@zincfive]

Great tips, elana. I love the idea of adding juniper. Do you find longer ferments continue to improve? I attempted a much hotter fermented tabasco style a couple of years ago with a mix of habanero and serrano with brine and vinegar, but i wasn't too careful with sanitation, and fought white mold,. It fermented well in a crock for a couple of weeks, and I pulled it. It was decent smelled good, somewhat bitter. This year my idea is to try a couple of ferments I can blend. The main one would be hab's, with brine, raw cider vinegar, maybe some brown sugar or tamarind, a lot of garlic. Probably adding ginger, lime or orange rind and allspice or juniper as aromatics, taking half this fall and letting the rest go for months or longer if it's successful, see what that does. I've even considered adding worchestershire or even anchovies or some sort of fish sauce, kick up the funk. The other batch might be some smoked serranos or hatches or chipolte, might be nice on its own, and interesting blended with the hab's.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

Sandor Kats is the guy I look for whenever I'm looking into fermentation so I suggest you check some of his stuff out. I haven't fermented my own hot sauce before, but some ideas from some of my other ferments: - First, a lot of fermentation is super lazy so you may be able to just blend the peppers fresh and ferment the mash directly. It would save you the chopping step and begin the infusion step earlier in the process. - You could look at adding a starter culture to get the peppers fermenting along a predictable path. Just using the native culture on the peppers will give a batch-to-batch variety to your process, but adding an active culture (previous ferment) will give a more repeatable result. I've heard of people using Yogurt starter, but if you have some Kraut, fermented pickle, or just a spare root veg laying around it should help. also add fresh garlic at the beginning as it will help push along the fermentation process and taste way better in the product. - I would absolutely give yourself more headspace in your jar. the off-gassing process will lift both liquids and pepper pieces out of the solution and can absolutely blow out the top of your jar. a lot of fermentation uses weights or a glass bowl in the lid to keep everything down. - 100% ferment cooler, the fermentation process is where you develop a lot of the flavor complexities and if it happens too fast you will end up with a sharp and bland product. there is a lot of work in the fermentation of Beer in this space and is what results in the flavor difference between Ales and Lagers. - I don't know if its part of the process to cut down on the salt, but rinsing the peppers might be why you lost a lot of your flavor. the entire time your peppers are fermenting they are releasing their organic compounds into solution and so that solution is going to contain a good chunk of your flavor; washing it away is basically cutting your yield. I would highly suggest not rinsing the peppers if you do discard the brine. also, keep the brine as it can be re-used for your next batch, and/or flavor something else. This ties back to the lazy comment from the top as your product may end up being a little salty at the end, but will probably have much more developed flavor if you keep everything together. - During the fermentation the brine will pick up acid from the fermentation of the sugars in the peppers, so it will have a relatively low pH on its own. a lot of fermentation doesn't add vinegar at the end as there is enough sugar in the vegetables to build out the vinegar and drop the pH naturally. I would say plan to aim for a pH (say 3), and if your ferment stops bubbling before then, top it off with vinegar as needed. You can always add more vinegar at bottling if the flavor isn't as sharp as you want. - Lastly, age your finished sauce if you can. so long as you take care of it, a natural ferment like this will last months or years, and the entire time the harsh volatile compounds of the fresh produce will break down and mellow out into a much more smooth and cohesive flavor. I believe Tobasco brand ages their peppers ferment for over a year before selling it. Moving forward I think it would be interesting to do a multi-pepper sauce as different cultivars and/or species could be incorporated to fully build out the flavor profile. Either way Good Luck with your next batch. (Edit: added bullet points and spaced it out as it looked a little like a wall of text)

[@markzambelli]

Very thorough Sir🥰 I would add a comment if I may about the rinsing... in this batch the rinsing was only to wash away the slime that developed in the mix but Mr Newkirk is correct to note a ton of flavour and heat was lost. The slime that sometimes happens due to that pesky, yet safe, bacteria should go away during a longer ferment as it'll lose the battle with the lactobacillus as the brine changes over time. I wonder if anyone else can remark upon this?

[@bobnewkirk7003]

@@markzambelli doing a quick search of the literature suggests that it is Pediococcus, another LAB, that outcompeted the lactobacillus in the increased temperature. The Slime is the result of a polysaccharide and is perfectly harmless. It should break down and thin out over storage and may be metabolized by other species in the culture once the population equilibrates

[@PepperGeek]

Thanks for all the pointers, this all makes a lot of sense. I’ll look into sandor, and come back to this when we start up the next try!

[@markzambelli]

@@PepperGeek So I've done a deep dive on your slime issues and thought I'd let you know about 2 things I found to add to my post above... 1. The slime forms when the fermenting temperature is too high which we know is exactly what happened to yours, 2. It is, as I remarked, perfectly safe. The slime itself is nothing more than long chain polysaccharides (sugars) that certain lactobacteria secrete. These bacteria thrive in the high-temps and that allows them to get a foothold early on. The fix?... reducing the temp will slow those bacteria down and allow the 'normal' lactobacillus to become dominant over the next few days or so. The best of it is, our usual lactobacillus eat sugars so they will be able to use these polysaccharides along with the sugars in the cayennes and after a while the brine will revert back to normal as they become dominant. This is another reason to let the ferments go for longer than a few days at the cooler end of things (you do your thing but for me, I usually leave all my ferments for at least 3 weeks and normally go for 4 to 6 weeks... this also gives mine time to 'complete' where the activity basically stops so nothing will keep fermenting in my bottles of sauce... if you're cooking the sauce though you can stop it at any sooner time and the length then just determines the flavours you'll get, as I'm sure you already know). My kitchen is usually around 18 - 22°C (64 - 72°F) and I was lucky to not have any ferments on the go during our recent UK heatwave of 34°C as I don't have any cooler areas to keep them. Hope that allays any concerns for anyone reading. Happy fermenting peeps

[@jamesvoigt7275]

I have tried making a fermented sauce by blending the ingredients first. It got moldy in a couple of days. After more experience I learned that one has to keep ingredients below the brine in order to prevent mold. So now I ferment my sauces with cut vegetables which I weight to keep under the brine. When fermented to my taste, then I puree them and refrigerate. Still, watch for mold, the acid level has to be strong to prevent that. Or process it in a water bath like regular canning. You will lose the valuable bacteria, but the product will stay intact.

[@wollum85]

Use fresh garlic and ferment it with the peppers. I use vinegar by taste and fill up with the brine to have a good structure

[@AdrienBruyat]

I do the same! Jus tbe careful with the quantity of garlic! I put 5 cloves last time and it was waaaay to much

[@marc-andrecarbonneau9721]

Those are my exact 2 comments. Last time I also fermented a bunch of berries too and it give a nice little fruity touch.

[@fishlovme]

​@@AdrienBruyat I learned that the hard way as well, but I used more like an entire garlic, not a Clove or two like I should've used!

[@Mossy5150]

Did this with a crop of Bhut Jolokia and it was insane

[@dbgarf]

re: vinegar levels I believe Tabasco sauce is mixed to a proportion of about 30% vinegar, which means 70% of the sauce is the actual pepper mash (blended and strained a certain amount) and brine. Your sauce has a proportion of 66% vinegar 33% pepper mash, so it's really not so much a pepper sauce as it is an infused vinegar. With my own homemade sauces I usually aim for about 20% vinegar, with a final pH in the range between 3.4 and 3.6. I expect your sauce will have a pH much closer to that of pure white vinegar (about 2.5 for 5% concentration vinegar) and will taste much too tart. The high vinegar content will also make the sauce very thin and runny and rather than sticking to food to flavor it it might kinda swamp the food and make it soggy.

[@awsomedude12345678]

I do 25%

[@patrickmorell8702]

If there is any pulp left, dehydrate it, blend it and you have the most insane chili powder ! Great recipe

[@josephmckenzie8953]

I usually make sriracha sauce at the same time I make my Louisiana style hot sauce. I usually take the leftover mash from the hot sauce, and blend it into the sriracha sauce.

[@flipflopgardener6629]

I love your thorough, no nonsense videos. You give great information without all the unnecessary filler that many KZbinrs feel the need to add into their videos.

[@davidfleb]

From experience, I'd recommend using more garlic powder which will act as an emulsifier and keep your sauce from separating. Also ferment for longer time (minimum 2 weeks) as a lower temp (20 C) for a better flavor profile. Also go for around 1.25 vinegar to 1 pepper mash by volume for a thicker consistency.

[@allanpennington]

Two points. I would use 4% (w/w) salt solution. Between 4-6% you are less likely to get a pellicle growth. Secondly weigh the water AND peppers together then work out your salt concentration. If you don't the moisture in your peppers will dilute the concentration. All vegetables are about 98% water, so you have to account for that water weight. Because of osmosis and concentration gradients, the total salt concentration includes the water found in the vegetables. Since we’re calculating a total (w/w) salt concentration (not salinity) the mass of vegetable matter added to the mixture has to be accounted for.

[@PepperGeek]

Okay that is a good idea. I was thinking of upping the salt a bit, but I think we may have lost some when I rinsed the peppers. Might also just try a mash instead of brine to further simplify it. We’ll see, but thanks for the tips

[@jennabronson4704]

For the percent salt, you need to include the weight of the peppers. 😊 The low salinity is why you got the bac contamination.

[@brockbrawn1524]

Wait do you weigh the liquid and peppers?

[@jennabronson4704]

@@brockbrawn1524 Yep. The peppers are 95+% water by mass, so the actual % salinity is everything together. I honestly wouldn't drop below 5% for peppers, because they can be prone to contamination.

[@MichelleLWhitney]

Ferment fresh peeled and crushed garlic cloves along with the peppers for a richer garlic flavor. Blend the garlic in with the peppers after the ferment. I’d never do more than a 1:1 ratio of mash to vinegar, but that’s personal preference (and I’m fond of a vinegary sauce). I also never rinse my peppers after fermenting (you’re washing away all the good stuff!). If you want to add heat back into the sauce, add some of the brine to the final mix. It gives the sauce some of that fabulous fermented funky flavor and it’s usually loaded with heat after the ferment finishes. Don’t know if you didn’t do that because the fermentation liquid went a little thick from the warm environment. I will often add back most of my fermentation liquid to a sauce. You can dissolve a tiny bit of xanthan gum (like 1/16-1/8 tsp) in a liquid and blend it into the final sauce to prevent it from separating. Don’t add much or it’ll thicken the sauce too much. Taste it like all good cooks and add what it needs. Last time I did a Louisiana style hot sauce, it was good, but lacked a sweet note, which led to a rummage in the fridge and the addition of a small peeled apple. Gave that sauce as Xmas gifts and it is still talked of fondly with misty eyes today.

[@jelly8594]

After reading your comments I skipped watching the video. Why on earth would one throw away the brine with all the flavour and heat of the chilis and add vinegar? Jesus.

[@ericwashington4386]

i always do 1:1 ratio of the ferment to vinagar and i also use fresh garlic. always comes out great!

[@NatalieBakerLove]

I was thinking fresh garlic may be best also. Thanks for confirming!

[@bobnewkirk7003]

Fresh garlic can also help push along the fermentation as it has a ton of the culture we are looking for. Definitely would recommend.

[@PepperGeek]

Great idea - we have fresh homegrown garlic too so I’ll do this next! Any particular ratio/weight of garlic to peppers?

[@ericwashington4386]

@@PepperGeek nope i just eyeball it. if you like garlic add more and vice versa. the important part is the mash vinagar ratio

[@D71219ONE]

@@PepperGeek I typically do 1-2 cloves per 16oz jar.

[@RustyRaine1]

Ferment for two months for full development of flavor. Make a pepper mash with a minimal touch of brine to avoid watering down the pepper flavor Use mash weight for salt ratio. You could also use a freezer bag filled with brine as an airlock. You can flavor the ferment by adding a small piece of oak wood from a bourbon barrel or chardonnay oak barrel using cheese cloth. This gives the sauce a dry tanin flavor. Only add to the ferment for 3 days as finishing. The oak can be soaked in your bourbon or chardonnay of choice before hand and if your using bourbon barrel oak you could char it more with a torch.

[@PepperGeek]

Unique advice, thanks! I actually forgot I got a bourbon barrel “spike” for this exact purpose. Maybe we’ll incorporate that for a more experimental ferment, but thanks for the reminder :)

[@erikhartwig6366]

i would add, Ferment the garlic with the peppers, i use 30-40% vinegar against the weight of peppers, and save the left over pulp when your done and make your own spice blend

[@LeonbergerG]

Been fermenting this year alot, big harvests. Will be making a cayenne sauce for Buffalo and what to do some habanero in them also for some more heat. Grew reapers also.

[@nicholasfolk5207]

I like to add fresh garlic during the blending of the fermented pepper phase to get a stronger garlic flavor and I also reserve some of the fermentation brine to add to the sauce.

[@HyBrad]

I add fresh garlic to my ferment. I also use 1:1 peppers to vinegar. Lastly, I add a touch of xanthan gum (not too much!) so it doesn't separate and thickens the sauce a bit.

[@SAVbeebse]

Thank you for your video! I like to use both a brine fermentation with jars, as well as vacuum seal bags with just a mash. I also recommend using fresh garlic with the peppers. I have experimented with different types of vinegar, loved how an aged reserve vinegar worked with one batch. I like to blend the peppers up with the brine as much as possible because it has both all of the flavor, as well as the healthy probiotics from the bacteria. Adding vinegar does kill off some of good bacteria, so I try to use it sparingly and rely on the brine for the moisture. Some people cook it afterwards, but this will definitely kill all the probiotics. Also, don’t throw away your brine after straining it. It has great bacteria cultures, great flavor to add to dishes, dressings, sauces, and you can jumpstart another pepper mash by adding it to a new ferment.

[@jelly8594]

Just a heads-up: if you use old brine to jumpstart a new batch, the complexity of bacteria will be negatively affected. So it's better to start new.

[@SAVbeebse]

@@jelly8594 Thank you for the tip, much appreciated!

[@sirbixalot73]

I like doing a pepper mash with crushed freshed garlic for the ferment. I do 1:1 on vinegar. I also like onion powder. Finally Xanthan gum rules for stabilizing it.

[@friedrichmarkus3574]

If you blend it down, BEFORE fermenting it, you will need less space in your glas. Also fermentation will be more equal

[@JRileyStewart]

I did it this way, no added vinegar. Blended whole peppers, garlic, onion with salt water and let it ferment. Gave some as gifts and everybody liked it. Much simpler process, but not sure it was "Louisiana Hot Sauce" ... I called it home made Sriracha.

[@tonyparker4211]

Once again a very informative video. For those who make big batches of fermented hot sauce, try reserving a few bottles to let them age. I’ve found bottles in the back of the kitchen cupboard two years old and the flavours are so much better. Too much garlic powder can dilute the colour of your sauce so try fermenting fresh garlic in your mash.😊

[@PepperGeek]

Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely leave a bottle or two to sit. Can’t wait to test the aged flavors :)

[@oldshovelhead]

Been doing the fermented cayenne since Jan this year - also a combo of chilis similar to Ms Sofko (red fresno and cayenne). I add 5 cloves of garlic peeled, a good amount of fresh dill, and about a tsp of cumin seed....all in 1/2 gal mason jars with airlocks - wrap a paper towel around the base of the airlock to soak up any overflowing liquid. They've all come out great! Currently have 1 batch red fresno, cayenne, jalapeno, and 4 habanero peppers and 1 batch the same less habanero (all have dill, garlic, and cumin seed). My sauce uses white and cider vinegar with the mother, garlic infused canola oil, and then various juices like apple, mango, pineapple in different quantities and various combos. Maple syrup is a good go to addition as it adds a different sweetness layer. I ferment the concoctions for at least 30 days in ambient temp around 72F. Hoping next year to be able to grow cayennes in my Aerogarden Farm 12XL as fresh cayenne peppers are hard to source here in CLE. Love the channel, always great content and info!! Pepper on!!!

[@lostman214]

So happy I found this channel. Been growing some Lemon drop hot peppers, along with jalapeños, hungarian wax, and a ghost pepper plant. All have been doing great thanks to this channel. Many thanks. Cant wait to make a hotsauce of my own.

[@gilbertcammarn874]

Yes less white vinegar will give you more heat and more pepper taste. Love the vid. Keeping it for future reference.

[@davidpepe3436]

I use the 1 to 1 ratio vinegar or pepper mash. I also add 10% by weight of garlic in the ferment. I think it adds to the flavor profile. I also thin out the sauce with some of the brine. I am not a fan of overly vinegar sauces. I started my cayenne about 3 weeks ago and it is ready for the bottle.

[@TheKitchenNinja]

These days, when I do a fermented sauce I don't use a brine. Instead, I just go for a straight pepper mash with 2.5% salt by weight of the mash and seal it in a vacuum bag. I make sure to leave a lot of extra slack in the bag to account for co2, and I will zip off the end and re-seal in case I end up with a pepper/co2 balloon. The advantage is that its far less likely that you're going to end up with a bad ferment from unwanted bacteria, etc. I'll also occasionally add other things into the mash. Fresh garlic, onion, etc. Currently, I have cayenne from last year that I'm just about ready to blend, and a ghost pepper/garlic from this year that I'm doing a much shorter ferment on. I'm thinking about ageing the cayenne from last year in a 5L oak cask that I've been ageing whiskey in...

[@PreatorRaszagal]

Oh, the nice beard is back! 👌And cool funnel with a built in strainer! Haven't seen something like that before. And as I seen in a bunch of other comments below, I'd probably put fresh garlic in with the peppers to get some more garlic flavour. And you could also chuck in a couple of superhots in the ferment just for the added heat 🔥🌶

[@PepperGeek]

🧔‍♂️thanks! We’ll be using fresh garlic next time for sure, or maybe a mix of both. Can’t wait for round 2!

[@wilsondent220]

@@PepperGeek I don't mean to come off as a "I told you so", but see, the beard is a winner. I think you should do a spoof video with the Mrs. wearing a beard as well. Of course she will have to use a fake beard, she is waaaaaayyyyy too young to sport one herself! Ha Ha.

[@Ottawajames]

Thanks for putting the Celsius conversions up... Fahrenheit only starts to make sense to me around 300 degrees.

[@unicornpoo7441]

The difference in heat between a freshly ground pepper paste and a fermented sauce made from the exact same peppers will always be fascinating to me

[@puretoronto]

Your comment is fascinating to everyone 🤷‍♀️

[@dtroy15]

I did a fermented hot sauce for the first time this last week. Garden fresh, and they were the hottest fresh jalapenos I have ever tasted. I used my thumb to pull out seeds from a half dozen for next year's garden, and my hand hurt for three days. The fermented sauce is shockingly mild in comparison. The heat is slow and builds very pleasantly. It's about like Valentina in heat.

[@jelly8594]

I never heard of capsaicin being altered by fermentation.

[@martinmartin691]

This is actually the most enjoyable part of the development of a product.>> The trial and error stage. This is when u can formulate to ur own preference... the hell with commercially available products.And use fresh garlic. Oh try adding fresh herbs for better flavor.😀

[@gregoryjohns9537]

Thanks for the inspiration. I raided the garden: 1/2gal red Shishito, 1/2gal Sugar Rush Peach, 1/2gal Shishiti/Cubanelle/Sugar Rush Peach, 1.5qt Red Shishito/Sugar Rush Peach... all with fresh garlic. Lots of great comments from your followers!

[@jlhenaff]

Others have mentioned using fresh garlic in the brine - this changes the color significantly but is worth the flavor. Additionally be careful when blending. This heats up your sauce and it can get hot enough to kill the helpful bacteria preserving your fermented peppers. So it is best to pulse blend then refrigerate for 15 minutes and repeat.

[@jlhenaff]

Oh also the fresh garlic helps massively with sauce texture. It's much less watery and has a more creamy texture the more garlic you use. Love your videos!

[@PepperGeek]

That is good to hear - the sauce had a nice texture but was more on the watery side than thick/savory. Thanks for the tips!

[@EASTSIDERIDER707]

I just finished blending my 1st two batches of fermented peppers. This video came just in time. I’ll be straining and bottling today. I have a food mill to further process the pulp.

[@toddmussman8486]

You want 3% of the total weight of the chilies and water combined. Good news is you can go as low as 2 and as high as 5%. Your fermentation went fast because of lower salt content. When making fermentations in warmer temps you need to increase the salt to slow it down.

[@hsuan2323]

Add whole cloves of garlic, and even some onions and carrots and I think you went light on the salt. I do it by weight of the veg and water.

[@jasonalred6012]

I do about a 1part mash to .5 parts vinegar. Also add fresh garlic to the ferment. Blend at the end and add a little zanthan gum to thicken and prevent separation.

[@bustabenson]

If you have a vacuum sealer then you can really simplify the fermentation process. Just add chopped peppers and 2 to 2.5% weight salt to a vacuum bag (try to make sure it's big enough to allow for the gas, but you can change bags later if you need to), shake then vacuum seal. No need to fuss with a brine or worry about contamination getting in.

[@bennielamb8911]

I normally stick to no more than one part to one part, but if I'm doing a ferment, the ferment already has that Tang taste. So I'll do a half a part of vinegar to one part of peppers. One good thing that I did try that tastes really good is to also ferment tomatillos along with the peppers which will add taste but cut down the heat

[@bryantpartazana6356]

Fresh garlic in the fermentation is a game changer

[@chacha134]

I’ve don 1:1 peppers to vinegar but I e also used some of the brine to keep the acidity level and not have it as vinegar forward. I try to get lest vinegar in my sauces so you can taste more of the peppers. Great video makes me really want to get going on growing cayennes

[@jennabronson4704]

Fermented cayenne makes a great basic sauce. One of my favorites.

[@mikethompson6713]

I use minimal vinegar. I add carrots honey and I add garlic when I start the ferment.

[@derher3273]

Great video! This time of year I live for making hot sauces for family and friends! I do agree with your vinegar amount being a bit High and besides your temperature also being a bit High I think that's the only place you could have improved. Thanks again for the video always looking forward to new ones.

[@PepperGeek]

Thanks for the feedback! Still going to use the sauce, but next time we’ll change a lot of things up

[@martybean71]

I ferment organic garlic with some onions in the jar, but I make a siracha style sauce and haven't used vinegar. I just keep my sauce cold in the fridge. But I will be trying Vinegar this season

[@muxhax]

thank you very much! So much information from your videos - that's a miracle and rarity in our times!

[@PepperGeek]

So nice of you, glad you enjoyed :)

[@mikkosgarden]

i fermented cayenne peppers for the first time as well. Mixed them up with blue berries. I finished it off with apple cider vinegar and added approx 50% vinegar by weight. The result was a bit thick although i didn't strain it. I agree, the heat level is mild maybe medium. enjoyable taste, looking for more heat next year.

[@jfilo3]

I made a small batch this year, using most of the brine with the peppers, then adding vinegar to taste. I also fermented garlic cloves along with the peppers, and added a bit of honey.

[@markm1514]

When I looked into this I found that the "gloopiness" is apparently caused by polysaccharides produced by Pediococcus, which are a type of lactic acid bacteria. Its perfectly harmless, essentially a kind of starch, and in a blended sauce might even be an advantage in viscosity, although the "slime" isn't stable from what I understand so the sauce will thin over time. The alternative _I_ would recommend if you _do_ want a sauce with more body that can stick to food better is *xanthan gum* and I invite you to DYOR about how that's made 🙈🙉🙊 Edit 1 minute after posting: If you want to avoid any chance of Pediococcus you can pasteurize or boil your peppers in the brine and use a commercial inoculant or live brine to get your lactobacillus.

[@thebinarybiscuit]

I'm a total chili head and I've never come upon this channel until now. I love it, more capsaicin content!

[@D71219ONE]

It’s a great channel for people like us. Welcome!

[@Sqalman]

I usually save the strained pulp and dry it overnight in the oven on lowest setting. Then grind it to powder or flakes conspiracy. A great chili spice powder!

[@PepperGeek]

Heck yeah, we did this too and just ground it up. So tasty!

[@fishlovme]

I've done that as well!

[@flowinproductions6416]

glad you do all these extra vids on what you can do with the peppers, especially sauces/powders. thank you!!

[@johannesmerkt1972]

Hey Pepper Geek. I would say the moment you reduce the amount of vinegar the heat will go up too. Also if you want to achieve more heat and flavor you could try a vacuum bag fermentation without water and only the salt added to it.

[@PepperGeek]

Good idea - we’re making a big ole batch of mash using a bunch of different varieties, so maybe that will make a good base. Thanks!

[@buddymc]

Try using xantham gum as a thickener. It's produced naturally if that is a concern. keeps the solids from separating from the liquid.

[@regatta2k]

Love the fact that you shared what worked and what didn’t work for you. Honesty at its best. Kudos

[@PepperGeek]

Thanks! I’m glad you feel that way, and happy so many people have shared great tips for the next round :)

[@clacker54]

I use garlic fermented in honey and then I will do 1/2 to 3/4 part vinegar to one part mash I don't like the flavor of vinegar in Louisiana style hot sauce so I tend to go less than that sometimes. I'll also add back some of the brine if I need it to be saltier.

[@ChefA-Town]

I prefer grinding the peppers with the salt prior to fermentation. It's easier to maintain and you don't lose any heat/flavor to the waste water.

[@sir_brix_alot]

I always use 3% brine,freeze dried garlic, a few fully ripe super hots in with the cayenne & 1:1 mash / vinegar

[@PepperGeek]

Gotcha, yeah I think a 1:1 is definitely the next try, and maybe incorporating a bit of the brine as well for heat. Thanks!

[@goaski474]

Throw a handful of fresh peeled & smashed garlic cloves into the ferment. For that size I would easily use a whole head of garlic. Thanks, great vids!

[@stevebryce6071]

Try adding a whole bulb of garlic to the ferment. I've done that a few times (with root ginger as well) - works great.

[@richardgracews6]

A fermentation weight will keep the liquid and headspace separated better, less mess. Also add some Chinense for more heat but not so much to turn the flavor to all Chinense. Ferment fresh garlic along with the peppers. Have a good one pepper geeks!

[@itsgamingDE]

I usually use 1 to 1.25 parts vinegar. But i really enjoyed your video! Thanks dude!

[@fishlovme]

I've been making fermented hot sauces for a year now. Might not ever go back to buying hot sauces! a few things I do: I add a little bit of garlic cloves right with my ferment. 1 to 2 is plenty. I learned this the hard way. if you have too much garlic (like a whole garlic, lol) it will taste too much like garlic and not hot peppers. Definitely you had your fermentation too warm. I leave mine in the basement for at least 10 days, even though i know the ferment is done once the liquid becomes clear again. I'm not sure it's necessary when using a sealer that's vacuum packed but I always put a weight on top of all the peppers so that they don't float to the top and not be completely covered in water. when making bottles of this sauce I like to make two kinds - some with the "pulp" still in the sauce and the other fully strained. if I fully strain it the liquid is too liquid so i mix in some xanthan gum. for the liquid I use only a little bit of the fermented liquid to get the blending started. I then add the vinegar slowly and some xantham gum for thickening it a little. Have fun experimenting until you get a good sauce! one last thing, might seem weird to some but I make fermented pickles top and some batches I make them with jalapeños to add a little kick to the pickles. couple of weeks ago I thought I'd try the peppers in a hot sauce. Fermented dill pickles hot sauce. sounds weird but it actually turned out really good! (that's if you like dill pickles.AND hot sauces). No pickles were used in the hot sauce, just the fermented liquid and the fermented peppers that were in the liquid. I will be doing it again sometime!

[@erikhartwig6366]

i actually leave the stems attached when i ferment the peppers. youll never see it in the end product

[@SAVbeebse]

I’ve heard that the stems have a high concentration of the lacto bacteria needed for the fermentation, and that using them helps with the process

[@PepperGeek]

Very interesting..no negative effect on flavor? That would certainly be easier

[@erikhartwig6366]

@@PepperGeek not at all. leaving the calyx and small portion of the stem doesnt affect flavor at all and actually seems to help with fermentation

[@spanosspanos]

In my experiments so far, I’ve found that there’s a lot of heat in the brine. So I put everything into the blender, and add small amounts of vinegar to taste. Also, with little or no vinegar it retains a pro-biotic element…if I’ve understood that correctly….

[@mikesimms2250]

dry roast garlic and add to blend

[@rsplayer157]

One of the biggest things that I do differently with my ferments is I save all of the brine liquid once the ferment is complete, and I use that as the liquid agent in the finished sauce. I find that vinegar is just to strong and it ends up drowning out the fermented flavor. My problem with most commercial hot sauces is that they're all just vinegar and spice, there's no actual flavor too them. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love vinegar, but I prefer to let my peps ferment for 2-3 weeks. So, if I'm investing that amount of time, I want my ferment and my peps flavor to really be front and center in my sauce.

[@rsplayer157]

Also, one way to amp up the spice is to leave more of the pepper particles in with the sauce and adding a tiny bit of xanthan gum to keep the particles binded to the liquid molecules. I know xanthan gum gets a bad rap because it's a synthetic binding agent but it really is not unhealthy for you at all and it doesn't add unwanted flavors to your sauce like other natural binding agents (like mustard or mustard power)

[@PepperGeek]

I actually have some xanthan gum on hand so I am not opposed to giving it a try. Thanks for the advice!

[@brucelarson4283]

I would use fresh crushed garlic at the start of the firment. Also i would add some fresh pineapple to round out the flavor🤔🤔

[@kendo2377]

For a pound of peppers I would add a whole head of peeled garlic when brining.

[@keithcarey6016]

my first suggestion would be to use actual tabasco peppers. They are small and a bit of a PITA to gather and accumulate enought to make a batch. The second bit would be that tabasco sauce is a mash under essentially a cake of salt crystals, not an emulsification. But then again you said you wanted to make a buffalo sauce, not a tabasco-style sauce.

[@13BloodyAprons]

Try adding Fresh garlic Cumin Fresh onion Fresh Sun dried carrot Pepper seasoning Salt Fresh turmeric Fresh ginger Fresh red bell pepper Vinegar

[@awsomedude12345678]

The ideal amount of vinegar is +25% so if you have 1 lb of hot sauce add 1/4 lb of vinegar

[@rstech10]

Add garlic cloves to the ferment. I like the flavor it adds.

[@diello1122]

Great video, just a few suggestions to improve the flavor of your sauce: 1. Upgrade the ingredients - You used a traditional recipe, but it's traditional because its the very cheapest way to mass produce a sauce. You have beautiful peppers and they deserve it! 1a. Distilled white vinegar is the cheapest for a reason, it isn't made the same way as other vinegars, and I don't think it tastes very nice. Try another "light" vinegar like white wine or rice vinegar instead. 1b. Try putting a few whole cloves of garlic in the jar to ferment with the peppers. The powder has a very "one note" flavor, fermented garlic gives you so much more. 2. Ferment in a place that gets lots of fresh air, not a closet or tucked away in a corner. 2a.When you use lactofermentation like this, you're using natural bacteria and lactobacillus isn't the only thing in there (like the slime shows) if the temperature is right, put it near healthy plants/where there's good air circulation. Stale air smells worse than fresh air because of the bacterias that live there. Believe it or not, those flavors will affect your finished product. That's something I learned from making kombucha, and it's really improved my fermentation game! I really like the video, keep up the great work

[@PepperGeek]

Thanks for the tips - I love rice vinegar so I’ll definitely have to try that in a future sauce. As for the fresh air, do you recommend open-fermenting (without a lid/air lock)?

[@diello1122]

@@PepperGeek I would only skip the lid if you had something to hold all the solids submerged, and something like a cloth over top to let it "breathe" (while still barring any flying pests). For consistency, I think the safe bet is keep the lid, but I've done both. It might not be such a noticable difference when dealing with intense flavors like hot chilis and vinegar, but generally if you do a 'wild' fermentation keeping it in a healthy, living environment with clean air, no dust, etc. you will get better tasting results. (Might make an interesting experiment: split a batch in 2, ferment one in a closet, the other by the window near some healthy plants) I tend to pick a different vinegar depending on what I make, but rice is my go to for pickled veggies.

[@davidniemi6553]

Hot sauce is near the top of the things I want to try, so thanks for the video! What would happen if you blended the peppers before fermenting instead of after? And I wonder if a lot of the capsaicin goes down the drain with the brine after fermenting -- of course blending first might make that problem worse. I remember at one point cutting up just one cayenne and letting it sit in vodka overnight, and it imparted quite an impressive amount of heat. Yes, I realize these are pretty much three random thoughts...

[@JacobWilkinsweather]

Come for the hot sauce process, stay for the beard progression. 🧔‍♂️🔥

[@DrunkInPublic]

This channel is the absolute best 🔥👏

[@michaelbarrett2346]

Thank you

[@Hermannsf20]

Thanks for the video, new in the channel. I’ve been fermenting for a (short) while and can share some experiences: - I’ve been using different peppers; red, yellow green (different names in Brazil, not sure how to translate each). I have one glass jar to each color (but could be with each type). Mixing them up is interesting and gives you many possibilities. - I also put fresh onions and garlic in the jars to ferment all together, so all the flavors combine. - In Brazil is always hot, so I ferment it in around 25°C and I leave it for 15 days. PH ends up around 2.7 also. Never found it to be a problem. - In other jars I put stuff to ferment (during the same time) and experiment, as: tomatoes and basil (amazing! Hot sauce with this + its brime is veeery tasty); more onions and garlic (if you want to ferment all separate); Tangerines and lemons (just did my first try with these and the sauce is still to be tasted). - After I blend the final sauces (I’ve experimented 8 different sauces last time) I still keep it fermenting for a couple of weeks in the bottles. I eat and give away some of it, but it keeps going in my cabinet. Hope any of this helped. I’m loving people sharing their experiences.

[@blasermann1994]

I personally do equal parts mash and vinegar. Have you ever dried the strained part of the hotsauce?

[@ChefA-Town]

I do this, so good on pizza

[@PepperGeek]

Literally just ground up the dried pulp - so delicious! I’m surprised they don’t sell it at the store

[@levimilford3951]

I'm currently trying my hand at my first fermented pepper blends to make hot sauce with. I have a habanero and orange ghost blend that I add a carrot and garlic to, and a another one that is a mix of bledsing bubblegum and red jalapeños with garlic and carrots. I am not using a brine. I just blended up my ingredients with 3%salt by weight; and I'm having to hand burp the jars bc I ordered the wrong size lids lol. 3 days in and when I burped the orange one it spewed pepper mash up out of the lid. So it seems very active. The other two are doing fine but not building as much gaseous pressure as quickly. They are all on the same location.

[@levimilford3951]

Since my orange one seemed too full I took 2 spoonfuls out and made an on the spot hot sauce by adding white vinegar and another clove of garlic and bringing it to a simmer for 10 minutes. Then blended it well and I wanted it thiner and to make it more unique so I added a couple teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and a table spoon of raw unprocessed sugar. It is pretty darn good and roughly a 6.5 on the heat.

[@trevorhoward8799]

I made about 1 litre of Buffalo style sauce last year from ripe cayenne peppers... and 1 litre from ripe jalapeños. I used 4% salt directly in the mash... NOT a brine. Fermentated both for 6 weeks... mixed 1:1 with vinegar then whizzed for a long time.. strained and bottled. While the cayenne sauce was good... the jalapeños sauce was much more complex and had perfectly flavours and balance with the vinegar. Could have been a tad hotter but was an amazing 'I put that $#!* on everything' sauce!!

[@PepperGeek]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Wonder why the jalapeño sauces aren’t as popular

[@trevorhoward8799]

@@PepperGeek honestly... don't know!? I didn't add any garlic powder to the jalapenos sauce either and it even tasted like I had... I have 2.5 litres if jalapenos fermenting right now... probably let them go for about a month and a half.

[@BendyWoodStudio]

Chop your peppers smaller so you use less liquid - add sugar to ferment to the correct acidity level, and use the natural brine in place of the vinegar. Make huge batches and be sure to have lots left for aging. Anyone else do it like this?

[@rickie2sticky66]

That looks amazing!!!!

[@PepperGeek]

Thanks! It wasn’t bad, but the next one will definitely be better 😋

[@Jana_G]

I think the content also has to be weighted to create 5%. and use fresh garlic of course 😋

[@JonTopping]

I love the fact that you also didn't trim the beard during the time it took.

[@motoxris]

Other than it being a home recipe with plenty of vinegar, why didn't you cook it?

[@JohnDiFrancesco]

Great video! Due to a late start and only a few plants, I only have a handful of ripe cayenne and tabasco peppers (plus a few frozen store habaneros), but I might try to ferment a mini-batch of them as an experiment. Could you have added fresh garlic with the peppers during the ferment instead of adding garlic powder afterward?

[@PepperGeek]

Yes many many people have made that recommendation so we will definitely ferment fresh garlic with the pods!

[@trotzkii]

What did you do with your green cayennes after harvesting? I'm in Canada and have 9 cayenne plants that I overwintered a week ago (didn't want to risk them being out for the first frost) and there were a bunch of green peppers that I collected during the process. I'm unsure what to do with them; I'm fermenting my reds in a similar brine to yours (though I included onions and garlic in the ferment with my peppers). Any suggestions for the greens?

[@the0prynce]

Aging your bottles and pasteurizing them are the only tips I've got. If you have some still on hand, has the flavor developed more?

[@AuxHex]

My choice is 1:1 peppers to vinegar by weight.

[@dccreations1361]

I've been making fermented hot sauce like crazy lately... But I keep getting kalm yeast!!

[@wherami]

Dont do below 70 on fermentation. Thats asking for a lot more trouble

[@Fitchett2012]

Hi! In noticed you calculated your brine percentage based on just the water, instead of the water and peppers combined. Was that intentional? My understanding is brine solution is supposed to be total weight of solids and liquids. Thanks for your notes!

[@diello1122]

Beard status: 'snuggly'. Next up: 'unruly'. By the time it gets to: 'wilderness'.. your sauce game will be amazing

[@PepperGeek]

😆 it is definitely well on the way to unruly

[@amandaharris9757]

Random question. Could you ferment in a water vinegar salt solution? Then after it ferments for a few days/weeks cook it down with the fermenting liquid? Adding more water, vinegar, salt after blending? Also I would add onion and garlic in the jar with the peppers.

[@Taloth1969]

I know this is an older video but I think fermenting too long takes away alot of the heat. I got busy and forgot some fermenting for little over a week and most if not all the heat was gone.

[@microsoft-pox]

I don’t use a brine or vinegar. Simply blend the peppers to liquid. Ferment. Strain. Done. K.I.S.S. 👌🏻

[@scottnyenhuis4984]

Maybe I missed something but the video says it fermented for 4 days and then mixed the final result for 2 days. Were did the 3 weeks before bottling come from?